Sheila Bryson: The Innovation 50

In a past life, Sheila Bryson did standup comedy, but now she channels some of that energy into PR and communications efforts for gaming platform Betable. Prior to her nearly three years at Betable, Bryson spent several years at Sparkpr with accounts such as Electronic Arts, Vevo, Walmart Labs, and Warner Brothers; served as Sony Computer Entertainment America’s PR manager; and supported clients HP and Blu-Ray Disc Association at Blanc & Otus.

Betable, which is headquartered in London and has an office in San Francisco, provides licenses and betting infrastructure for developers to integrate real-money gambling in online games and apps. Last year the company raised an additional $18.5 million in funding, with plans to grow its team, launch new features, and support more developers. Bryson is helping the startup at a time when online gaming offers booming business prospects for Silicon Valley. Betting on mobile devices could become a $100 billion worldwide industry by 2017, according to estimates from Juniper Research.